Evo Devo(or that's what the kids are calling it these days)
by Katrina Kenyon
Summary: Some girls are into Evolutionary Biology. Luckily for Myka, Helena is one of those girls.


**Evo Devo (or that's what the kids are calling it these days) **

It was two weeks after Helena's reinstatement and Myka was sitting in Artie's office with Pete. They had finished their inventory early and were waiting for Claudia and Helena to finish up, so they could all drive home together. She was anxious to get back to the B&B. It had been a long and tedious day and all she wanted to do was to curl up with a good book and maybe have some tea with Helena.

She glanced over at Pete, who was pointing at something on his forearm and talking. Talking to her and she wasn't listening. Oops.

"Sorry, What were you saying Pete?"

"Mykes, you're a giant nerd right?" She rolled her eyes at him. "What muscle is this?" He asked, pointing to the tendon tensing visibly beneath the skin of his wrist."

"Actually that's a tendon. It's the tendon of the plamaris longus muscle." The door to the office opened and in stepped Claudia and Helena, but she paid them no mind and continued her explanation. "And not everyone has it. It's one of the most variable muscles in the human body and is missing in about 15 percent of the population worldwide, which is kind of cool if you think about it. It's also not a functionally significant muscle in humans, but in arboreal primates it's almost always present and is functionally significant, which is probably why evolutionary scientists think that it's under negative…" She paused and looked up at Pete who had clearly stopped listening a long time ago. "Selection," she finished.

Claudia sniggered. "Nerd out much?"

"Total brainiac," Pete agreed.

She felt heat in her cheeks and hoped the blush wasn't showing as much as she thought it was.

She wasn't a scientist, not by a long shot. She just read a lot and never really confined herself to a specific genre or subject.

Although, there was that one time her freshman year of undergrad where she briefly considered studying human biology, before deciding that a double major in classic literature and linguistics was what she really wanted.

As Pete and Claudia continued with the teasing, her eyes darted over to Helena, who was giving her an appraising look. Her blush deepened and she quickly looked away.

Way to go Myka. Way to word vomit in front of the author of the Time Machine, she thought.

It was later that night, when Helena came to talk to her. She had her hair up in a messy bun and her nose tucked into a book. She missed the knocking at her door and nearly dropped her book when she discovered Helena standing right next to her with that aforementioned tea clutched in her pale hands.

"Oh, dear. I didn't mean to give you such a fright."

She shrugged. "It's fine. I didn't hear you. I was…" She looked down at the book she had been completely immersed in just a few seconds before and blushed. It was one of Helena's. How embarrassing. She quickly tried to hide her battered copy of the Time Machine, but was unsuccessful.

She looked up at Helena and saw a soft smile pulling at the inventor's lips.

"How do you find it?"

She swallowed before answering. It's not every day the grandfather of science-fiction asks for your opinion.

"I enjoyed the social commentary of your work, but what I enjoyed most was your perspective on human evolution. I'm kind of into evo devo." At Helen's blank look, she added, "evolutionary development. That's what the kids are calling it these days."

"Ah yes, I actually came to talk to you about that. I found your conversation with Pete to be rather fascinating and was wondering if you might have more knowledge on the subject?"

"Really?" She asked in disbelief. It's just that no one at the warehouse was ever interested in anything she liked.

"Of course, darling"

She grinned. She had found her kindred spirit apparently.

"I have a couple journal articles, but there's more online," she chattered on excitedly.

An unruly curl escaped from her bun at that moment. She ignored it in favor of telling Helena more about the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.

But the Victorian saw the curl and could not, would not, ignore it. With her slender hand, Helena tucked the unruly curl back behind her ear.

Myka stuttered for a few seconds and then stopped talking altogether. The dark eyes that were usually filled with such intensity, such cunning intellect, were now warm and soft. Inviting. Something inside her fluttered and…and she was totally staring now. She turned away quickly to look for the journals, but a delicate hand on her shoulder stopped her.

The Victorian pulled her close, until their faces were only inches apart. Warm brown eyes focused only on her. And she did not look away, could not look away. Not from those eyes.

"You are a rather remarkable woman Myka Bering. I have spent over a century waiting for a mind like yours. A woman like you."

It was Myka that closed the distance between them. The feeling of velvety soft lips brushing against her own stirred a desire within her that she had been struggling to name before. It was perfectly clear to her now. She was infatuated with H.G. Wells.


End file.
